Four Tourist Spots in One Day

I hit four tourist spots in one day today. I and three of my friends, Caleb, Jeremy, and Marissa, left our dorm complex at 10:30 and arrived at the Fragrant Hills Park by bus around 11:30. We walked from the bus stop near McDonald's to the East Gate of the park, and I asked for directions in Chinese when we weren't sure if we were going the right way. I was so excited to say "xiangshan dong men zai nar?" and my friends congratulated me; Jeremy and Caleb are also in Chinese 1 with me, so they know where we started this trip language-wise. I'm always so happy and proud when I get it right.

We entered the parking lot that led to the gate, and there were a few casual chicken coops around. It was unexpected and made me smile. We bought our tickets to the park and took the Northern Path that brought us past some gardens, a waterfall, and took us to the Azure Clouds Temple, which was the second sight we wanted to see.

The park was absolutely beautiful. There were tall, tree-covered hills, temples, pagodas, flowers, and lagoons everywhere. It is in the northwest corner of Beijing, the absolute limit of the city, and it felt like an entirely different place. No, the air wasn't clearer or anything, but it was not urbanized at all. It was nice to be in a less bustling place for the day. The park was not a huge tourist attraction, so we were the only Americans we saw. There was a Chinese family who even asked to pose in a picture with us, which was really funny and they were very nice.

I really liked the waterfall in the park, and after spending some time there, we moved onto the temple. This was a Buddhist temple that was built going up a hill. The special thing here was the memorial to Dr. Sun Yat Sen, and I was very happy to be able to visit that. The final building of the temple is a pagoda, and you have to climb a lot of stairs to get to the top. The view from up there was the most beautiful thing all day, and it was certainly my favorite part of the entire excursion.

After the Temple, we went back into the park and headed to one last spot before going to lunch. We went to the Tranquil Heart Studio, where there was just a large pond with carp surrounded by a gazebo-like structure. It was a very peaceful place to sit and regroup after an energy-consuming climb.

We walked back toward the bus stop and had McDonald's for lunch because it is a place that is friendly to a friend with food allergies, then we bought more bottled water and got on the bus to the Botanical Garden and Wofo Si Temple. The Temple was a 1300 meter walk from the gate of the Garden, and we went there via the rose garden, music fountain (where we played with some children at the sprayground), and other lagoons and gardens along the way. The Temple was the smallest I've been to so far, and it was very nice. There were a few buildings with Buddhas, and the final, featured one was the Reclining Buddha, for which the temple was named. It was lying on its side with its hand propping up its head, and it was wearing a red velvet robe (but it also might have been a blanket; two views gave two different impressions).

I really like seeing temples, mostly for the scenery. The striking thing about the Lama Temple was that people went to pray there, but these were more remote, so while there were people observing rituals, it was more about taking in the scenery. Both Temples today had ponds with fish and turtles in them, and I got to observe the 9 sons of the dragon king as described to me by yesterday's tour guide.

We got back to campus by bus around 6:00, and I proceeded straight to dinner, then taking a well-earned shower (it was so hot today!!), and finishing my homework for tomorrow. 

All in all, it was a really fantastic day. I covered a lot of amazing ground with some spectacular friends, and we had wonderful weather in which to do it. All four of us took tons of photos, and I can't wait to upload them and see everyone else's. 

Oh! And I just want to note something I forgot to write about yesterday. I had two extreme moments of how small the world actually is. (1) On the Lugou Bridge, there was a young boy wearing a jersey from my home basketball team. (2) There was a Sarpino's Pizza in the Silk Market. These two things were just shockingly American, but more than that, American in my America. You can never really be too far from home.

Today is awesome because I saw Fragrant Hills Park, the Azure Clouds Temple, the Beijing Botanical Garden, and the Wofo Si Temple.